Unions and Communists March Side By Side at May Day Rally - Los Angeles, Ca 5/1/2011

This year’s annual May Day March in Downtown Los Angeles was considerably smaller than last year’s demonstration which, because it coincided with the passage of Arizona’s anti-illegal immigration law, SB 1070, brought out more than 60,000 people, and only a tiny fraction of the 500,000 people who attended in 2007 when congress was debating immigration reform. The organizers estimated the number of attendees this year to be 10,000 and the police put the number at about 3000. Based on other demonstrations I’ve attended, I’d put my guess at about 4000.

There were plenty of vendors hoping to sell American Flags, but this year most people weren’t buying.

To be sure, there were a few American Flags scattered throughout the procession - especially near the front of the march.

More common though were the flags of other nations.

But the most prominent flags on this day were bright Red.

In fact, I’d never seen so many Communist flags and banners in all my life.

Aside from all the Communists, there were also many union members on the street, including hundreds of members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) wearing their trademark Purple shirts.

You might think that a union representing 95,000 public employees in California would think twice about marching alongside red-shirted Communists waving the "hammer and sickle" - but you would be wrong. In fact one large contingent of SEIU members was led by a man in a Purple SEIU shirt waving a bright red Communist flag.

You can see him at the end of the following video leading a large group of SEIU workers. Also notice that nearly everyone in this video is either holding signs or banners supporting Communism or is wearing a union t-shirt (or both). You can even hear SEIU members leading the marchers in a threatening chant of, "Legalizacion o Revolucion!" (legalization or revolution).

Another group that caught my attention was a squadron (or escuadra) of Brown Barets in paramilitary garb marching around, pumping their fists in the air and chanting, "Chicano Power!" and "Viva la raza!".

You can see and hear them in the following video marching in front of a large group of dancers in Aztec costumes.

The Brown Barets, as well as many other demonstrators at the march, support the re-conquest and eventual annexation of the American Southwest to Mexico.

There was also a large contingent of gay demonstrator marching with rainbow flags and chanting, "We are the QUEERS! The mighty, mighty QUEERS!"

But it was the sheer number of outright, unapologetic Communists that really blew me away.

The young Communist in this picture did not like me photographing him and his group so he came over and draped his red flag over my camera lens. He told me that he would confiscate my camera if I took another picture.

I walked away, switched my camera to ‘movie’ mode and went back and filmed him. He came straight back at me and said, "I told you not to take photos", as he waved his flag in front of my face. I told him, "I can take photos of whoever I want". Just then his Communist overlord came over and told him to "stop wasting energy".

Another group that was present at in the march and on stage was the United Teacher of Los Angeles, which is an affiliate of the California Teachers Association (CTA), the National Education Association (NEA), and the American Federal of Teachers, AFL-CIO. The UTLA is about as far-left as a union can get, promoting "social justice" in public school classrooms, and even bringing students to demonstration such as this one.

In the following video you can see UTLA members leading students in a chant…

Later, UTLA speakers and SEIU speakers joined Communists on the back of a flatbed truck and gave speeches, mostly in Spanish, to a gathering of 60-70 high school age students, many wearing the same red shirts as the Communists and the UTLA members.